Going with the Flow

I was very much looking forward to tapping maples trees today and beginning our maple syrup adventure for 2020.  What I did not anticipate was having to do so with two very surly children.  Despite saying that they were excited to go "mapling" as a family, Liam and Seamus were in terrible moods when it came time to go.  

While the IPAD does keep our children quiet by lulling them into zombie-like comas, I firmly believe that little boys (even those who are medicated and recovering from surgery) still need to go outside.  Otherwise, their energy bottles up and they start acting even crazier than usual when you take the screen away.  

 

After the past several days of consuming vast amounts of Paw Patrol, Ian and I found ourselves strapping two very ornery and attitude-laden hooligans into snowshoes for our maple tree tapping adventure.  

As I am sure you can imagine, it was a disaster.  We were only on the second tree and we already had fighting over the tools, lost parts, temper tantrums, blackmail attempts and lots and lots of crying.  Sigh.  By tree eight, I had to strap the boys back into their car seats in the van and wait for Ian to finish the tapping by himself (I expect enjoying the newfound serenity of a forest minus two very crusty kiddos).

Alistair was in excellent spirits, as usual.  He is seriously the most easy going kid.  Why can't we all be like Alistair and just go with the flow?

I wonder what obnoxious children are going for on Kijiji these days?  I am considering placing an ad.